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CABLE ADVISORY COUNCIL
P. O. Box 87
Newtown, Connecticut
~ Minutes ~
Minutes of Public Regular Meeting –
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Newtown, CT
There was a regular meeting of the Cable Advisory Council called to order at 7:01 p.m., Tuesday, September 14, 2010 by Chair Jim Lang at the Charter Communications facility, Newtown, Connecticut.
ATTENDEES: Ray Juskiewicz (New Fairfield), George Fletcher (New Milford), Eugene Rosen (Newtown), Gregory Davis (Roxbury), Paul Katzmark (Southbury), Jim Lang (Trumbull), Donna Cassidy (Trumbull)
From Charter: Tom Cohan (Gov’t relations), Greg Van Antwerp (Community Access)
PUBLIC INPUT: None
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
The minutes from the July 13 minutes were approved unanimously.
TREASURER’S REPORT:
Carl Braun gave his report: Total of $21,681.44 between checking, money market, and CD. Treasurer’s report was accepted unanimously.
CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS REPORT.
Tom:
- Rates changes effective October 1, 2010 are as follows:
- Basic Service in Newtown system only from $21.99 to $24.99/month
- Expanded Service in Newtown from $39.00 to $36.00/month
- Wire Maintenance Service from $2.95 to $4.99/month
- Broadcast TV Surcharge Fee of $1.01/month added to video customers
- New Primary Outlet Installation and Reconnection Fees will change from $29.99 to $49.99/month
- Change of service special trip from $23.62 to $49.99/month (effective November 1, 2010)
- New channels effective October 12, 2010 in Fairfield County only:
- WCBS-HD on channel 790
- WNYW-HD on channel 791
- WABC-HD on channel 792
- WNBC-HD on channel 793
- WPIX-HD on channel 794
- Channels being deleted effective November 30, 2010 in Fairfield County only:
- WTCC-HD (formerly WTXX-HD) on channel 780
- WVIT-HD on channel 785
- WTIC-HD on channel 786
- The state will post a Connecticut broadband availability map on line.
- On September 13, there was a press release from Broadband USA to announce the CT Dept. of Information Technology is receiving $93.9 million grant to upgrade and expand existing network for public safety and educational services.
Greg
- Community Vision 21 is having an open house at the Newtown studio on September 30 from 10am until 8pm.
- The Summer interns will graduate on September 23.
- The Fall internship has 11 community members signed up.
- The truck for mobile productions has been updated to accommodate video shoots.
- There was a monitor added to the editing set.
CORRESPONDENCE:
- A Woodbury resident commented to Carl Braun that a Charter employee was very helpful to him.
- Cassidy called Charter to see if she could get a lower rate for her service, and the customer service representative said they could not help her. She went to the Newtown location and the representative was very helpful, and did lower her monthly bill.
- Fletcher commented that he lost audio on his cable television, which resulted in him unplugging his cable box. When he plugged it back in, the sound came back on all channels except channels 2, 6, 8, 10, 11, 20, and 22. Cohan will look into this problem and contact Fletcher.
OLD BUSINESS:
- The council decided not to continue to discuss Joe Hurley’s previous question on the existence of the Advisory Council without him.
- The council also decided not to discuss the possibility of writing a newspaper article until the next meeting. Lang made a motion to discuss this issue at the next meeting. Cassidy first, Katzmark seconded, all in favor.
- The council continued speaking to Tom and Greg about how the council can better serve Charter. Tom suggested that each community should promote access channeling to have a steady stream of diverse local programming. The community should recognize that local programming exists and can be helpful.
- Greg mentioned that promoting community access is important. The open house, scheduled for September 30, is a great way to promote community access.
- News stations often contact community access to cover stories in their town. However, community access does not go out on location, but rather suggests how to cover a story. The community can film a story, and community access can help edit the video.
NEW BUSINESS:
- The renewal for the domain posting is coming due. There are two domain names used for the cable advisory board (cableadvisoryboard.com and cableadvisoryboard.org). The council discussed whether both names are needed, and Gregory Davis suggests choosing one. There are different services that are being used to keep this website running. Lang made a motion to ask Davis to find alternatives for domain hosting. Cassidy first, Rosen seconded, all in favor.
ADJOURNMENT:
Motion to adjourn meeting at: 8:12 PM. Katzmark first, Jurkiewicz seconded, all in favor.
Respectfully submitted by: Tiffany Wolfe, Recording Secretary
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